Saving a hero
by Katie237
Summary: When The Flash is taken hostage and unable to use his powers, it's up to the rest of his team to locate him and bring him back. Very short (2 chapters) story written for Fantasygirl1329 for the 2017 Fanfiction Christmas Spectacular.
1. Chapter 1

**Here's my little story for Fantasygirl1329 for the 2017 Fanfiction Christmas Spectacular! I will admit it, my idea started really big in my head and kept on getting bigger and bigger. Seriously, I really could've written 6 to 10 chapters of that size instead of two, so** **I really struggled to keep this as short as possible to meet the deadline of Jan. 15th. I really wanted to put more of Singh and add lot more of Barry's POV, but I couldn't manage to do it in the amount of time I had. I hope you guys still enjoy it, especially you Fantasygirl1329. Despite the result, I can promise there's a lot of sweat and efforts in this :)**

 **Posting the second (and final) part next wednesday. Enjoy!**

* * *

Absently playing with his pencil between his fingers, Barry couldn't be less interested about the Meta human conference that was about to get started. After being on a _sabbatical_ for 6 months, as far as Singh knew, his boss wanted him to go get a little refresher class on genetic characteristics specific to the people who were changed by the famous explosion. If only his boss knew just how much time he's been spending chasing down these people outside of his official work time, he probably wasn't going to learn a single thing today during that training course. What was taking so long for the conference to start anyway? The room that got rented in the Central City Conference Center was filled with almost fifty people, all sitting behind many long tables placed one behind the other.

Looking down at his watch with annoyance for the 10th time in a row in the last couple of minutes, Barry started unconsciously wishing that there was any criminal activity going on right now. Not that he wanted something bad to happen to anyone or have some honest citizen getting robbed, the hero just needed to excuse to take a _quick_ bathroom pause and get out there. He needed to stretch his legs.

What was the famous idiom? Be careful what you wish for? A phrase Barry should've remembered…

When the wrinkled scientist stepped on the stage, he wasn't alone, it was with a tall man, at least 6'4 tall, harshly pushing him behind. The scientist's dread for his own life was more than obvious and it instantly had everyone's anxiety rising up to the roof. There was no blaming the crowd for their fear since the vast majority of the men and women in the room were civilian scientists, people with no fighting training whatsoever. Some of them tried reaching out for their phone, but got stopped as the man on the stage loudly cleared his throat.

''Unless you don't mind having the floor and the ceiling around you get evaporated and come crashing down on you all, I suggest you restrain yourself from calling the cops. '' He threatened, pressing whatever he had, probably a gun, against his hostage.

So, not rest for the fighters apparently. Once he made a quick scan around to make sure nobody was looking at him, Barry took off running. Not that he really needed to look around, why would anyone be checking him out with was happening on the stage? In a matter of seconds, Barry managed to go get his suit and run the stage, taking control. Under the quick punch that connected with his jaw, the criminal got quickly sent on the ground while his scientist hostage was already running away to safety.

''You guys truly didn't hear about me coming back?'' Taunted Flash, rising the tall man back on his feet.

''Oh no, we were expecting you. Not this fast, but we were counting on you to show up.'' Instantly said the man, a smirk on his face.

Wait, did he just say we?

''If you try anything, Flash, I have someone waiting in the backstage who's ready to do some pretty bad damages in there. You wouldn't want anyone to get hurt, wouldn't you? ''

Barry's clenched his teeth together, there just had to be a way out of this without hurting anyone.

 *****FLASHFLASHFLASH*****

It was with a pit in his stomach of unknown origin that Joe walked inside the police precinct. Something was wrong, really wrong; he could feel it in his gusts. Except, Joe couldn't put his fingers on what exactly was making him feel that way. Before even entering the building, he had already called his daughter to make sure she was ok considering that the last time he had this feel it was when her appendix busted. But, it couldn't be it since she confirmed everything was fine and that she was relaxing alone at home. So, what else?

The instant he put a foot out of the elevator, his feeling that something bad was happening somewhere got confirmed as uniforms were running everywhere, arming and preparing themselves before rushing toward the exit door.

''Captain!' He called out, almost grabbing his boss as Singh, dressed in his bulletproof vest and completely armed, was practically sprinting toward the exist with the rest of his men.. ''What's going on?''

''There was an explosion at the Central City Convention Center.'' Let out Singh without introduction, there was no time for that, nor need as Joe suddenly became pale as a ghost.

''But, that's where Barry is-''

''I know, I'm sorry. We'll bring him back.''

His foster son was not a random citizen; he was The Flash. He was a superhero with incredible abilities and with Superspeed, and yet, it didn't stop the man to worry and greyed his hair every time Barry was standing in the middle of danger. Especially at this instant as his worry was mixed with his earlier feeling.

''Please Barr, please be ok.'' He whispered to himself while running to join the task force already on their way the bombing site. A sentence he kept on repeating as his fingernails were digging in his car wheel all the way to the site after he failed at contacting the young man many times. Nobody was picking their damn, not Barry and not his friends and team at S.T.A.R.

Slamming the brakes, the second Joe's car made it in front of the smoking building, the Detective's dread rose even higher at the sight of the East Wing of the Convention Center. Understatement of the year to say that it was in bad shape; partly collapsed, a fire crackling in the air and people still running out of the building, helped by the firefighters already on the scene. Joe just stood there frozen, strongly gripping his car's open door to stay up as he was watching everyone moving and running in all directions. With each second, his stomach dropped a bit more as he couldn't find a single sign of a yellow lightning that should be there, that should be zapping people out of that place.

''I wasn't able to contact Allen.'' Said a voice to his right; Singh. The anxiety and worry were clear in every word.

''Me neither.'' Said Joe with shaking lips.

If that wasn't enough, the next thing that stole Joe's attention made his knees bend; right at the exit door he spotted a familiar black, yellow and red jacket being half-dragged out of the place.

 _'Cisco'_ He breathed out, his body rushing into action and covering half the distance before his mind could comprehend he was moving again. By the time he made it to the young superhero, the fireman that took him out had already given him over to one of the groups of paramedics. The health professionals wasted no time in quickly taking over and seating the semi-conscious, but harsly coughing man on a gurney. The left sleeve was in bad shape, cut all over, and the yellow section was tainted by lots of still flowing blood while the hero himself seemed unfocused and mildly struggling to breath. Cisco's head was hanging low, looking down, and his right hand was pressing tightly against his wounded arm.

''I'll take over.'' Stated Joe, stabilizing his voice and lips while showing his badge to the paramedics. ''Detective West, I'm with the CCPD.''

His voice had the young man instantly rising his head up, his tensed and tightly closed lips opening and twitching into a smile for just a second before tensing up again in obvious discomfort.

''Sir-'' Intervened the paramedic, ''-you cannot interrogate this man at the moment. We need to take care of the wounds and he might have a concu-''

''I'm good, I'm goin-arg.'' Jumping to his feet and off the gurney, the metahuman's body protested when his feet touched the ground and he drunkenly stumbled for a second, staying stable thanks to the Detective rushing by his side.

''I'll take him to the hospital myself.'' Promised Joe, putting a quick end to the conversation by sharply turning around and almost sending the hero off balance in the process.

''Is Barry...?''

Joe almost felt bad to rush to that question first without even checking or asking if the engineer had any real bad injuries, other than his arm or his coughing fit, but he needed to ask.

The way Cisco deliberately made sure to look toward the ground instead of toward his interlocutor had Joe fearing for the worst.

''He's...he was taken.''

Taken? What? It sure beats death by explosion or being buried under rubbles, but taken? By whom? Where?

''I'm sorry...I tri...tr...tried...to stop...stop them.'' Added Cisco, leaning a bit more heavily against the older man with each step, his eyes going unfocused. He wasn't going to be much of help for now.

''Stay with me, I'm taking you to Caitlin.'' Added Joe, grunting under the man's weight and slowly dragging him toward his car that he left with the driver's door wide open. Explanations will need to wait for later; they couldn't afford to lose two superheroes the same day.

''Ba...B...barry.'' Mumbled Cisco, fighting to stay conscious.

* * *

 **A/N: Leave a comment, they're always deeply appreciated.**

 **See you again next Wednesday. Next chapter will be mostly from Joe's POV.**

 **And if you're not following my twitter, I posted a new posting schedule for January; Message in a Bottle is coming back next Friday with regular weekly updates and Long Way Home is going to come back on the following Friday (Jan. 19th) !**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank you SO MUCH for all the amazing reviews! You all are the best!**

* * *

''My...head.'' Grumbled Cisco, slowly coming back to the world of the living with the unpleasant feeling that something was hammering in his head. Where was he now? It wasn't smelling like his bedroom. He remembered being at the Convention Center and... Barry! The hero sat up fast enough to be overtaken by a strong dizzy spell that forced him to close his eyes and take deep breathes under a pair of familiar and delicate hands that pushed him back on the mattress.

''Take it easy, Cisco. You're at S.T.A.R. Labs.'' Explained Caitlin. ''You were completely out by the time Joe took you here.''

''Barr-'' He started, opening his eyes again and scanning the room. ''The Convention Center, there were people ru-''

''The police are still trying to search the rubbles for anyone still buried under and trying to make a headcount on who got captured and who's still missing.''

''Is there any...-'' Trailed Cisco.

''There's many injured, but no, nobody had been found dead so far.'' Informed Caitlin, still looking at her friend's vitals on the computer. ''Wally's out there, looking for Barry and the others hostages as we speak. ''

''I'm sorry, Cait, I should've been faster. '' Tiredly said Cisco, trying again to get into a seated position.

''Take it easy, Cisco.'' Said his friend as the strong hand supported him despite the concern shining in her brown eyes: ''You still have a mild-concussion, some smokes in your lungs, 2 cracked ribs and a pretty gruesome gash on your arm. You're not going anywhere.''

''I should've appeared outside the building and check the parameters first. I could've stopped them before they activated the second bomb and abducted Barry.'' As he was speaking, the superhero hit the bed in frustration with his good arm, his jaw clenching.

''I see that he's back with us.'' Commented Joe, entering the medical bay with the corner of his lips slightly twisting in an unconvinced attempt at smiling under these dim circumstances.

Swiftly turning his upper body as he heard the familiar voice, Cisco suppressed a groan from the pain he just caused to his injured ribs: ''Have you found him?'' He hopefully inquired.

Losing all visual sign of that failed attempt at lighting up the mood, Joe closed his eyes and sighed deeply: ''No, nothing. What happened in there?''

''I tried to help him.'' Started Cisco, forced to stop himself as his itching throat sent him into a sudden coughing fit. Almost instantly a hand carrying a fresh glass of water appeared in front of him.

 _'_ _Thanks.'_ He gratefully expressed through a nod, before continuing, after taking a few sips. ''I was training when Barry ran in to take his suit. When he failed at answering to his comms, I just breached over where he was. By the time I got there, they somehow had already taken Barry and a few others hostages. They triggered a bomb and threatened to blow more in the building if I was to follow.'' Narrated Cisco, his head low in shame. ''They detonated another one anyway...I should've gone after Barry, I should've tried harder.''

''Don't beat yourself up, you tried to save as many people as you could, you did your best.'' Assured Joe, putting a gentle hand on his friend's arm.

The detective's ringtone interrupted whatever he was about to add next, making him dig into his pocket to extirpate the device.

''West.'' He grumbled to the phone.

''Joe…'' Answered Singh's voice, without wasting any time for greeting. ''You better put your TV on.''

''Turn the TV on?'' Joe frowned in confusion but still gesturing at Caitlin to go check it out with the TV in the room. ''Which channel?''

''Any one will do.''

As a matter of fact, there seemed to be a breaking news broadcasting across all over the city: _Flash and many civilians taken hostages_

The streaming was pretty dark, like it was filmed inside an old basement, but thanks to the dim light everyone could discern the bright red suit standing against a wooden pole. The fallen hero was heavily leaning forward with his head down and his arms behind his back, probably tighten together with the same power dampener that had been put on him at the conference center. Behind the speedster, there was a group of four people sitting on the dirty floor, arms also behind their back. In the lighting it was hard to discern their faces and tell which ones of the 7 persons missing in the explosions were prisoners in this place.

"I can't see Allen." Commented Singh, his eyes scanning the group for his missing CSI, his only still missing employee and the one for whom he always had a soft spot for.

 _'I can.'_ Thought Joe, clenching the phone between his fingers, but keeping his comment for himself.

"Gosh, I hoped he was among the hostages and not in the rubbles" whispered the captain with his choked voice, full of dread.

"Citizen of Central city," Triumphantly announced a deep voice behind the camera, "may I present to you our guest of honor for today?"

A tall and muscled form walked in front of the camera and carefully approached his unmoving prey who stayed completely inert, a detail that caused Joe to clench his fist even tighter and take one unconscious step forward, instinctively needing to protect his son.

"Wakey wakey flashy" added the voice, advancing toward the speedster with a baseball bat.

Swinging his weapon without hesitation, the man connected it a mere moment later with the hero's side, earning a particularly loud grunt of pain as Barry's eyes snapped open.

"Leave him alone!" Screamed Joe to the screen and forgetting he still had his boss on the line and that the people on the screen couldn't hear him. Deactivating his cellphone's mic, he turned his head toward the bed and pulled the engineer out of his stupor by calling him out: "Cisco! Can you track the broadcast signal?"

"On it!" Said the engineer, pushing through the pain of his ribs and head and ignoring the doctor's protests as he jumped out of the bed. After a couple of shaky, stumbling, steps, he regained his balance and ran to the closest computer, frenetically hitting the keyboard touches.

"They must have find a way to deactivate the suit's tracker...but if I can just hack the news channel and find from where they're receiving the signal, then I can-"

"I don't care about the how, just do it!" Ordered, rudely, Joe before turning back his attention to the live broadcast, reactivating his microphone for one second:

"Can I call you back, sir?"

It was with his ear ringing that he heard Singh's answer, whatever it was, when he realized the captor was about to rip off the hero's mask from off his face.

"Don't be shy, show your face to the world."

The big hand going for the red piece of clothing. Barry tensing up. People in team flash tensing up... Everything was happening at the slowest of motions from Joe's perspective.

The dirty hands went for the mask, trying to peel it off the hero's face. The time stood still and Joe could feel the drop of sweat running down his forehead as his son's identify was about to get revealed to the entire world.

Unless….Oh. Thank God. Most of the technology Cisco had put into the suit was gone, but apparently he kept the lockdown mode. No matter how hard the rogue was trying, eventually helped by his frustrated hooded friend who came from behind the camera to struggle with the red fabric, there was no revealing Barry's identity.

''He looks so young. '' Said Singh on the phone as the captors finally took a step back.

Oh, oops. With everything unfolding, looks like Joe completely forgot to finish cutting off the line.

''Alright.'' Growled the tallest captor, spitting out every word with annoyance and anger as he took out his gun and pointed it at the Scarlet Speedster's head, ''Let's make a deal, Central City, we won't reveal you his face today, but if you don't pay us 10 Millions in the next hour, your precious hero will die, live, and one more hostage will follow every ho-''

A horrifying scream from his side stopped his sentence midway, a distress sound that came right out of the hero's mouth before his muscles started violently moving in all directions. Well, moving as much as they could while being tie-up.

''What the-''

In the cortex, Joe urgently turned toward Cisco: ''Find him, NOW!''

''I'm trying!'' He shouted back, he had been trying none-stop since getting behind that computer.

''Cisco!'' Pressed out Caitlin, hovering over his shoulder, her worry for her friend rising exponentially

''I'm not Felicity, dammit!'' He answered back, furiously typing on the keys, trying to locate his best friend's position.

As the hero's seizure came to an abrupt stop and the man completely ceased to move. At this instant, complete silence filled the cortex. The man with the hood inserted his fingers between the mask and the hero's skin, growling in frustration:

''He doesn't have a pulse. Told you, you shouldn't have woken him up with that! You probably did some internal damages!'' Shouted the criminal to his colleague, furious that they probably just lost their biggest hostage.

Whatever the other man answered back was lost on Joe's ears, but it probably sounded something like _'Shut the damn camera off'_ since the broadcast stopped moments later. No, not Barry. It couldn't be. He didn't just die right in front of his eyes. No…His knees turned to jelly and he almost went down, face first, on the ground. He would've if it wasn't for strong unknown hands helping him sit on the closest chair.

''Joe? Back with us?''

He had no idea how much time he lost, but as he slowly blinked, the blurry form in front of his teary eyes slowly transformed back into Caitlin: ''Cisco managed to triangulate their location, or close to, at least, before the broadcast ended. Wally is searching the area right now and he's-''

Wait? They found the location? They had Wally searching the area right now? Even if they did find Barry, it was already too-

Whoosh!

The typical sound of a speedster rushing into the room and leaving it with a trail of flying papers in his trail, made itself heard in the room. As it left, in less than a second, it wasn't without a gift. Indeed, there was now a familiar red uniform lying on the bed occupied by Cisco moments before.

''BARRY!'' They all screamed in unison, rushing to the medical bay in a record time, unsure what they were hoping to find.

Caitlin was probably already thinking about a million things she could try to revive her friend and save his life before it was too late…unless it already was. Whatever action the doctor was planning to do got cut short in an instant as the most unexpected miracle just jumped into the face; the red head turned on his own and looked at the group with tired, but opened, eyes.

''Hey.'' He rasped. ''You guys need to remind me to never speed up my heart like that again…it hurt.''

Cisco scoffed and closed in eyes in a mix of pure joy and relief. ''Yeah, don't EVER do that to us again. ''

''Yeah, never again, Barr.'' Agreed Joe, his hand against his still speeding own heart. ''It's my heart who can't take it.''

''How did you even managed to do it with the power dampener cuffs on you?'' Asked Cisco, frowning in confusion.

''Not sure…I just…tried really hard. Couldn't let them kill the hostages.'' Slurred out Barry, his eyelids starting to close.

''Hey! Don't fall asleep on us!'' Said Cisco, slightly shaking his friend's shoulders as he saw the tired eyes blinking slower by the moment.

''Hummm.'' Grumbled Barry with a sleepy voice, clearly unhappy about being forced to stay awake.

''Dammit Barry, you could've trigger a real heart attack!'' Exclaimed Caitlin, her worry jumping back to the roof once more as she pushed her fingers on her friend's wrist. ''You might as well still can, it's so fast I can barely feel your heartbeat.''

''Must be…be…why…it hurt like hell.'' Slowly mumbled Barry, wincing.

''Hey! Stay with me and you can sleep all you want once I'm sure you're fine, alright?'' Suggested Caitlin.

Barry fought to open his eyes again and nodded slightly. Not that Caitlin was really watching; the woman had already run off to gather all the medical equipment she was going to need to monitor the speedster.

''Cisco; mind helping me out?'' She asked before adding: ''After that, it's bed rest for you too.''

The police Captain's voice calling over the speaker on the phone was trying to grab back Joe's attention to inform him about how Kid Flash suddenly appeared in the precinct with the rest of the hostages and the cuffed criminals. Except, Joe couldn't care less at the moment. Later, he could need to call back his boss and let him know that his young CSI was miraculously brought back home and that he didn't get buried alive in the Convention Center, but that could wait just a minute. The important thing right now was that Barry was back, alive.

 **THE END!**

* * *

 **A/N: Leave a comment**

 **This chapter could've easily be 3 times longer or more, but hopefully it's not going to show too much. At first, I wanted to have many live streaming and a big search by the police, but, like I said, I ran out of time. Anyway, a HUGE thanks to Brentinator and SenseiGrace for inviting me in this fun Secret Santa fanfiction. If you do it again, I hope you'll invite me again and i'll be even better at short stories. Promise**

 **Meanwhile, see you all on Friday for the return of Message in a bottle :)**


End file.
